homage to ustad bade gulam ali khan

Homage to Bade Gulam Ali, artist K M Madhusudhanan evokes a sense of the change and shift in Indian history, with regard to migration. Bade Gulam Ar believed that musical notes were distributed spatially, he spoke of music as migratory, of travelling between the regions of the subcontinent. "Sheheron mein sur baante gaye" is how he spoke of the migration of Raag Bilawal to Kashmir and Bengal, Jaijaivanti to Sindh, and other migrations. Singing Shubh Din Aayo in 1960 virtually at the end of the Nehruvian period, Bade Gulam Ali, revelled in this knowledge, even as he mourned loss and separation from the beloved 'sur'. Madhusudhanan's work sits across the gallery space from a faux protocopy of Nehru's desk.It was on a desk such as this, now fading into history that perhaps the biggest migration in human history was contemplated. 

Gayatri Sinha